Doth he not speak parables?— Though these prophesies were clear enough, if they would have given themselves the trouble to have considered and compared them with the state of things; yet, as the understanding of them would have obliged the people to a change of conduct, the source of their obscurity is very discernible therein. It was hence that the Jews, dazzled with the evidence of what Jesus said to them, and surprised with the splendour of his miracles, demanded of him with importunity, and with a spirit of malice, that he would tell them plainly who he was; as if his doctrine and his actions did not sufficiently declare it. How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. John 10:24. See Calmet.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The date of this prophesy is in the seventh year of Jeconiah's captivity and Zedekiah's reign, the fifth month, the tenth day; and it was delivered on occasion of the elders of Israel, whether of the captivity or from Jerusalem, coming to consult the prophet, as some suppose, whether they might not, to ingratiate themselves with their heathen masters, conform to their heathen worship: certain it is, that whatever was the cause of their coming, their hearts were hypocritical, and the answer of God to them is full of wrath.
1. God refuses to be required of by them; for they who draw near to God hypocritically, can expect no mercy at his hands; their very prayers will be turned into sin.
2. The prophet must arraign and condemn them; no more their advocate, but their accuser; and now constituted their judge to pronounce sentence upon them for all their own and their fathers' abominations.
2nd, God begins to recapitulate the provocations of Israel; and they commenced from the day when he began to form them into a people.
1. He reminds them of the wonders of his grace shewn to them above all nations. He chose them for a peculiar people, in the time of their deepest affliction, and most abject wretchedness, in the land of Egypt; he made himself known unto them, by his name JEHOVAH, and by the miracles that he wrought for their deliverance; confirming his favour towards them by an oath, and assuring them of the inheritance that he had provided for them in a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands, which he espied for them, singled out with peculiar care, as the happy spot appointed for their abode. Note; None truly know God, but those in whom he is revealed.
2. The commands that he gave them were most reasonable and easy. They were enjoined to cast away every man the abominations of his eyes, and not defile themselves with the idols of Egypt. And this he enforces with the most cogent reason, I am the Lord your God, the only worthy object of worship, and to whom they were bound by unnumbered obligations.
3. They notwithstanding wilfully rebelled, and refused to hearken to God's commands, continuing in their abominations, and cleaving to the idols of Egypt; not deterred by all the plagues which they beheld.
4. By his prophets he threatened to destroy them with the Egyptians. As they had joined in their idolatry, they deserved to share their ruin. But,
5. For his name's sake he wrought, that the heathen might not blaspheme, as if he was unfaithful to his promises, or unable to accomplish them.
3rdly, The mercies of God, and the ingratitude and disobedience of the Jewish people, are displayed.
1. God's mercies toward them were amazingly great and singular. He brought them forth from Egypt with a high hand; led them into the wilderness, where they lived by daily miracles; and gave them his law, with the statutes and judgments of his worship, by the observance of which they might expect to live long, and enjoy the promised inheritance: he gave them also his sabbaths, the weekly sabbath, and the sabbatical and jubilee years, signs of his favour towards them, memorials of their deliverance from Egypt, pledges of their entrance into the rest of Canaan, and figures of the eternal rest which remains for the faithful in a better world: thus God distinguished them from all nations, and intended to make them know that he their Lord sanctified them; these holy days appointed for his immediate service, having then, as they still have, the most blessed influence upon the souls of those, who conscientiously sanctify their sabbaths to keep them holy.
2. Their ingratitude and undutifulness were most provoking. In the wilderness, where they were surrounded with mercies and miracles, they rebelled, cast off God's government, despised his ordinances, polluted his sabbaths, and sunk into idolatry.
3. Offended with such baseness, God threatened utterly to consume them in his fury. But for his own glory, that the heathen might not dishonour his name, as if he was unable to bring his people into the land of Canaan, he resolved to fulfil his promise: yet, not to leave such wickedness without a mark of his severe displeasure, he sware in his wrath concerning the men of that generation, that they should never enter into his rest; and, in consequence thereof, their carcases fell in the wilderness. Let us therefore fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should come short of it, and perish after the same example of unbelief and disobedience.
4. God did not make an utter end of them, but spared their children, and solemnly warned them, by their fathers' ruin, against their sins, not to walk in their statutes, or copy their worship or manners, but to flee from idolatry, to know the Lord to be their God, to worship him according to his own prescription, observant of his sabbaths, and obedient to his laws. Note; Children should take warning by their parents' ill example, and be peculiarly careful to abstain from their sins.
5. They notwithstanding rebelled against God, and trod in the steps of their ungodly fathers; sabbath-breakers, disobedient, idolaters; rejecting their own mercies, they provoked that wrath which would have destroyed them, had not God for his own glory restrained his arm, after making them feel some heavy strokes of his displeasure in the wilderness. And though, according to his promise, he brought them into the land of Canaan, he foretold the fearful dispersion to which at last they would be doomed for their transgressions. Note; (1.) Sinners are self-murderers: they might have lived, if they would have been obedient; but they prefer sin and death. (2.) They who walk in the ways of their wicked ancestors, must expect their judgments.
6. He gave them up to their own inventions. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live. He gave them up to the idolatrous customs of the nations, and suffered them to follow the vain traditions of their apostate forefathers. Though some interpret this of the judgments that he sent upon them; others of the rites of the ceremonial law, on which depending for acceptance with God without any reference to the Messiah, they became a stumbling-block to them, instead of leading them to Christ, &c. (See the Annotations.) And I polluted them in their own gifts, suffering them to offer sacrifices to idols, even the inhuman oblations of the first-born to Moloch, to make them desolate: thus weakened by their own more than savage conduct, they became an easy prey to their enemies: to the end that they might know that I am the Lord, righteous in the punishments inflicted upon them. Note; (1.) A greater curse cannot fall upon the sinner, than to be left of God to the wickedness of his own heart. (2.) God will make himself known to sinners: if they will not receive him as their Lord and Saviour, they shall prove him to be God the avenger.
4thly, Their provocation ceased not in the wilderness; but when they came into the land of Canaan the same abominations were practised.
1. When God had fulfilled his promise to them, and brought them into the good land, they trespassed yet more and more. Instead of confining themselves to God's altar, they, in conformity to the customs of the heathen, chose hills and groves for their places of worship, and offered there their sacrifices, incense and libations, which, if offered to the God of Israel, were contrary to his precept: but probably they rather there served their idols, which made the provocation of their offering greater. And, though warned of the folly and sin of their idolatrous services, when they had God's altar to go to, they persisted in their perverseness; and the high places were to the last frequented: it is called Bamah, that is, the high place, unto this day. So inveterately rooted is the love of sin in the heart of the sinner.
2. Even after all the judgments executed upon them, the present generation committed the same abominations, polluting themselves with idols, and causing their children to pass through the fire to Moloch; with the folly and wickedness of which God justly upbraids them; and how then could they dare inquire of him? or what answer of peace could they expect from him? he swears by himself, that neither their persons nor petitions should be regarded; and their schemes of currying favour with their heathen masters, by compliances with their worship, and incorporating with them by intermarriages, he will blast: either they shall refuse to admit them to join with them, or despise them for their perfidy. Note; (1.) Little is ever got by sinful compliances: the very enemies of religion will honour those who shew steadiness and integrity; while they treat apostates with contempt. (2.) They who by a religious profession have once forfeited the world's favour, may despair of ever recovering it again.
5thly, Since they would not bow to the sceptre of his righteous government, God threatens,
1. To rule them with a rod of iron, disappointing their schemes, and pouring out his fury upon them: they shall not be suffered to mingle with the heathen, among whom they are scattered, but thence will God collect them: when the Babylonians shall have subdued these nations, they shall be brought into the wilderness of the people, be carried captives into Chaldea, and there God will judge and punish them, as he had punished their fathers in the wilderness, after they came out of Egypt. Note; They strive in vain, who seek to frustrate God's holy counsels.
2. There is mercy in reserve for a remnant, when the rebels are purged out by his judgments.
[1.] The rebels shall be for ever cut off from the congregation of the Lord; shall never more enter the land of Israel, given up to their idolatries, and totally excluded from God's worship; so that they shall pollute his holy name no more, by joining him with their idols; and at the same time that they pretended to honour him with their gifts, still continuing in their idolatry. Note; (1.) The rebellious sinner will be eternally separated at last from the congregation of the just, and never enter the rest of glory. (2.) That soul is completely miserable, which God abandons. (3.) Pretences to religion, when the heart is enslaved by idol lusts, do but add profaneness and hypocrisy to iniquity.
[2.] The faithful shall be separated, and blessed with God's regard. They shall pass under the rod, visited with corrections; and recovered in the furnace of affliction. They shall be brought again into the bond of the covenant, be acknowledged as God's people, be restored again from their dispersion to their own land, and serve God in his Zion, his holy mountain. Their oblations and their worship shall be accepted, they penitently acknowledging, bewailing, and abhorring themselves for their former transgressions; and God will be sanctified in them before the heathen, who will confess his faithfulness to his promises, his power and grace displayed in their recovery; and they shall know that he is the Lord, by experience of these his dispensations of mercy towards them, wrought not for their sakes, who deserved nothing but to perish in their iniquities, but for his own name's sake, most eminently to display his glory, as the promise-keeping and sin-pardoning God. Note; (1.) Afflictions are blessed means of good to those who are not incorrigibly impenitent. (2.) When God accepts our persons in Christ Jesus, then our poor services become a sweet savour through the Beloved. (3.) The sinner that returns to God and finds favour, sees in the glass of God's love the baseness, malignity, and ingratitude of sin, and loaths himself for all his abominations. (4.) We never know God truly, till by experience, coming to him as lost sinners, we prove the wonders of his pardoning love. (5.) All our salvation flows, not from our deserts, but God's rich mercy; and as he designs his own glory herein, to the praise of the glory of his grace it must be wholly ascribed.
6thly, We have in this chapter another prophesy, which would most properly have begun the next chapter. The subject of both is the same, the threatened ruin of Judah and Jerusalem.
1. The forest of the south field, toward which the prophet is commanded to set his face and drop his word, is the city of Jerusalem, full of inhabitants, unfruitful as the trees of the wood, and the haunt of wicked men fierce and ravenous as the beasts of the forest.
2. God threatens to kindle a fire in it, a fire of wrath; and the conflagration shall be universal, devouring and destroying all ranks, young and old without distinction, from one end of the land to the other; and none can quench it; a destruction so terrible shall mark the finger of divine vengeance, and even the surrounding heathens shall acknowledge that this is Jehovah's doing.
3. Ezekiel makes his complaint to God. Ah! Lord God, they say of me, Doth he not speak parables? they scoffed at the message that he brought them, as unintelligible; and counted it not worth their attention. Note; They who have no inclination to profit by the word of God, will always have some fault to find with the delivery of it.